basedvulpes wrote:Where do most students live? The apparent lack of nearby housing is the biggest turn-off for me at the moment.

From a 1L perspective: I'd guess about half of the 1Ls live on campus, and the vast majority of the rest lives in complexes in the immediate vicinity of school--there's a ton of big apartment complexes really close by actually (77H, Mass Court, Senate Square, etc. etc.). A minority lives elsewhere (I live in Columbia Heights for example).

basedvulpes wrote:Where do most students live? The apparent lack of nearby housing is the biggest turn-off for me at the moment.

From a 1L perspective: I'd guess about half of the 1Ls live on campus, and the vast majority of the rest lives in complexes in the immediate vicinity of school--there's a ton of big apartment complexes really close by actually (77H, Mass Court, Senate Square, etc. etc.). A minority lives elsewhere (I live in Columbia Heights for example).

Interesting, good to know. I figured people were spread out sporadically near the red line.

Now to shatter my dreams, what's the pricing like on or near campus?

Most of the big complexes close to school are higher end, which comes with a price tag - unless you're able to snatch an affordable dwelling unit (ask Gray for details), you're looking at 2K+ for a one bedroom and 2.5K+ for a two bedroom, so you wouldn't necessarily be saving much if anything compared to living on campus (which costs about 1.3K a month I believe), but your place is gonna be a hell of a lot nicer.

There are also some more dinky complexes close by if you don't mind not having amenities (and/or sharing the place with roaches, going by online reviews). Another way to live cheaper is to find a (floor of) a rowhouse to share, or living in an english basement. I haven't looked into the prices of those nearby, so you gotta do your own digging there. Yet another alternative is to live in a complex a little further away, in a residential neighborhood and/or not super close to a metro stop. Those places are typically still pretty nice and quite a bit cheaper, but you then you do have to deal with transportation.

basedvulpes wrote:Where do most students live? The apparent lack of nearby housing is the biggest turn-off for me at the moment.

My roommate is a 2L and we live in NOMA, which is a residential neighborhood nearby within walking/biking distance. There is a metro stop as well, but that wouldn't be needed to get to the school. The area seems to have a negative reputation as it is still developing and used to be really unsafe apparently. I haven't had any issues though and will definitely just be renewing my lease if I end up at GULC. The price point is about the same as above ($2.0K+ for a 1BR, $2.6+ for a 2BR). There are a ton of law students that live here (for other DC schools as well).

Edited to quote based and fix a typo.

Last edited by thelincolnlawyer on Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hand wrote:Tell me about the LRW in-class exam. What even is this thing?

For Donahoe, it was multiple choice and generally pretty easy. Just pay attention to your professor's quirks (e.g., since/because) and review the materials you're given, and you should be fine. Grammar was probably the hardest part.

How drastically would you estimate that the larger student body increases the level of competition regarding law review and moot court acceptance as compared to most smaller schools? I assume that class rank would certainly be more competitive too, is this true? In general, have you experienced any notable issues with GULC simply based on its size?

It's hard to tell you how much class size increases the level of competitiveness compared to the smaller schools, well because, I haven't experienced other schools. But, the size has it's pro's and cons. It might be harder to get a hold of professors during office hours and it's easy to just blend in and not be accountable to get called on because you're likely not going to get called on. I think class size is more relevant to OCI where it seemed to me that GULC students are a dime a dozen, and you might be better off getting DC biglaw, and definitely better off getting clerkships from some of the other lower T14s. YMMV, take my insight with a grain of salt.

Cochran wrote:How drastically would you estimate that the larger student body increases the level of competition regarding law review and moot court acceptance as compared to most smaller schools? I assume that class rank would certainly be more competitive too, is this true? In general, have you experienced any notable issues with GULC simply based on its size?

Thanks!

I'm a 3L so in c/o 2016.

Main Journal takes approximately 6o people (so 10% of the entering class + transfers, with a large preference given to non-transfers). This percentage is similar to small T14 (Cornell, Duke, NU, Chicago). Main Journal has a weird ranking system: a third of incoming members are selected entirely based on their Write-On scores, a third based on a combo of Write-on and GPA, and one-third ENTIRELY based on a personal statement (provided that these candidates score in the top third of write-on submissions).

As far as general size concerns go:I know outcomes of my section best, so here's a spreadsheet detailing them: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 2137162564. About 57% are in biglaw, with some additional members in Gov honors programs and a lot in PI. A large majority of the people I know who tried for biglaw got it. The strikeouts I know were really much more the result of terrible personalities/chronic shyness than anything relating to grades. Spreadsheet is still incomplete (lots of "Unknown" due to non-updated LinkedIn), so take the percentages above as rough minimums.

Overall, I think our unwieldy class size is becoming less and less of a problem as biglaw hiring improves. The class of 2017, from all appearances, has done better than us, summer class sizes are only getting bigger, etc.

Hand wrote:Tell me about the LRW in-class exam. What even is this thing?

It's not bad. At least for us, you were allowed to use any handouts/Powerpoints/whatever as long as they were on your hard drive. So if you were smart, you could save everything into one long Word doc, and then Ctrl+F and find the info you were looking for. But if you generally pay attention in class and are halfway competent at Bluebooking, it's nothing to stress about.

Last edited by TheSpanishMain on Mon Oct 19, 2015 7:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

SirArthurDayne wrote:How easy would it be to have a part time job while going to school? Also how easy is it to get a job, say, working at the front desk at the library or doing something else on campus that would allow you to study at the same time?

Fwiw, I have had a couple jobs around campus, and it wasn't tough to get them, although ymmv. I know a lot of people don't want the stress. I don't find it too bad, but I know I would have 1L. I wouldn't have had time to breathe.

To the above poster, I am exquisitely happy with my decision. There is some PI skew, although it wears off a little into 2L when people get more concerned about getting a job, any job. I didn't do EIW, but I've heard that most fared fine, with those who didn't having unfortunate, but solid reasons for little success.

GULC really is a great school though, and both the students and teachers really seem to care, and it makes it a fun but still hardworking place to learn.

thelincolnlawyer wrote:Are you all generally happy with your decision to attend GULC? Would you make the same choice to attend if faced with the decision again?

Do you find that GULC's reputation as having more PI/Gov oriented students holds true? Does this skew the employment numbers as much as older threads indicated?

How did you fare through EIW (if applicable)? Do you have a gauge for how well the class as a whole did?

Generally, I'm happy with my decision to attend GULC. I don't mind the large size classes. There's always something that's going on, so you're never really bored. The professors are decent, all really intelligent and knowledgeable. There's some outstanding ones, and some that are well... okay. But they always make themselves available if you ever need to talk to them. Best thing after 1L is you get to pick your classes and professors. It's great if you find a group of friends who are supportive, and I think that's easy to do at GULC.

I don't think that it's THAT PI/Gov oriented, or at least not in my section. A lot of the people in my section went through the EIW process and were interested in Biglaw. You tend to see the same people if you go to law firm events/receptions after the NALP date. I do know a number of people who are PI oriented. I hear mixed things about OPICS - some say it is really helpful, some say it's not that helpful. I think the problem is BIglaw hires much sooner than PI/Gov, and it is a more formal and organized process, so if you go towards PI/Gov, you need to take much more of an initiative to find what you want to do. Like my PI friends have not really looked into internships for next summer yet. I pretty much just went to OCS for advice. I think they're decent, how much they help depends on how much you ask for it.

I think if you want Biglaw, you can if your grades are decent. I didn't have trouble getting a few offers, even though I was at median. So, don't freak out if your grades aren't spectacular. Just know you're going to have to hustle and interview well. If you are below median, it is going to be hard. I do know of a few people who struck out during EIW. It is a very stressful process, but at least it's quick.

Last edited by Londonbear on Mon Oct 19, 2015 9:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.